Applied Nanomaterials
and Clean Energy Laboratory

News and Media:


  • Sept.2021

    Our review titled "The role of artificial intelligence in the mass adoption of electric vehicles" has been published in the September 2021 edition of the Joule. In their work, the reviewers discussed the prospects of artificial intelligence within electric vehicles, charging stations, and the smart grid. For more details, please follow https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2021.07.012.


  • Nov.2020

    Our paper titled "d-Orbital steered active sites through ligand editing on heterometal imidazole frameworks for rechargeable zinc-air battery" has been published in Nature Communications. In their work, the researchers were sucessfully able to implement metal-organic framework in zinc-air batteries with a higher cycllability, when compared to the noble-metal benchmark. For more details, please follow https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19709-6.


  • May.2020

    Our recent paper on Nature Communications titled "Dynamic electrocatalyst with current-driven oxyhydroxide shell for rechargeable zinc-air battery" has been highlighted by Editor's Focus on Energy Materials...More
  • Jan.2020

    Our paper titled "Water balancing" has been published in Nature Energy. Water management is an important aspect in the operation of alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells. Now, a lightly cross-linked norbornene polymer membrane is shown to be able to facilitate optimal water transport, leading to exceptionally high power and current density fuel cells.More
  • Jan.2019


    The conversion of carbon dioxide gas into value-added chemicals by electrochemical CO2 reduction reactions is considered as a promising strategy for recycling CO2 with economic and environmental benefits. A highly selective and durable electrocatalyst for carbon dioxide conversion to formate is developed, consisting of tin (Sn) nanosheets decorated with bismuth (Bi) nanoparticles. Owing to the formation of active sites through favorable orbital interactions at the Sn-Bi interface, the Bi-Sn bimetallic catalyst converts CO2 to formate with a remarkably high Faradaic efficiency (96%) and production rate (0.74 mmol h-1 cm-2) at -1.1 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. This is reported by Guobin Wen, Dong Un Lee, Bohua Ren, Fathy M. Hassan, Gaopeng Jiang, Zachary P. Cano, Jeff Gostick, Eric Croiset, Zhengyu Bai, Lin Yang, and Zhongwei Chen in the article https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201802427. Video Abstract
  • Dec.2018


    Scientists at the University of Waterloo have created a powder that could capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from factories and power plants. The advanced carbon powder, developed using a novel process in the lab of Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo, could filter and remove CO2 from emissions at facilities powered by fossil fuels before it is released into the atmosphere with twice the efficiency of conventional materials.... More
  • Nov.2018


    Prof. Chen named to 2018 "Highly Cited Researchers" list
    Prof. Zhongwei Chen has today been named in the prestigious list of "Highly Cited Researchers" for 2018. The list, formed by Clarivate Analytics, recognizes world-class researchers ranking in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year. Prof. Chen, who is widely regarded for his ground breaking contributions to the field of energy conversion/storage and advanced nano-materials as well as sensors, appears in the "Cross-Field" category of the list, on which researchers with substantial influence across several fields are included. Elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2017, Prof. Chen has 250+ refereed journal articles and 35 patents, H-index reaches 66.
  • Sep.2018


    Dr. Zhongwei Chen has recently co-chaired the 4th International Conference on Electrochemical Energy Science and Technology 2018 (EEST 2018) in Niagara Falls, Canada, hosted by the International Academy of Electrochemical Energy Science (IAOESS), the University of Waterloo and the Western University... More


  • Many of our group members have participated and received award from IAOESS conference. We would like to congratulate Pan Xu for receiving the EEST 2018 Organization Award, Jing Zhang for receiving the ACS Best Poster award, WenYao Zhang for receiving the Nano-Micro Letters Best Poster Award, Zachary Cano and Yaping Deng for receiving the Coatings Best Poster Awards.
  • Aug.2018


    Series of seminars focusing on the topic of "Advanced Catalysis and battery Development" were delivered at the invitation of Prof. Chen on August 17th, 2018.
    Prof. Can Li from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, an academician in China, delivered a seminar entitled "Photocatalysis and Photo-electrocatalysis for artificial photosynthesis"
    Prof. Qiang Zhang from Tsinghua University presented a seminar focused on the advancement of novel materials for lithium-sulfur batteries.
    Prof. Feng Yan from Soochow University spoke on the topic of anion exchange membranes for fuel cell applications, specifically the effects of alkaline media on membrane stability.
    After the seminars concluded, a group discussion was hosted by Prof. Chen. Dr. Meiling Xiao, Dr. Jianbing Zhu, and Dr. Zhong Ma introduced their research and described their recent progress. During the reports, Prof. Li inspired the audience and gave many insightful suggestions. Prof. Guohua Chen from Hong Kong Polytechnic University also talked about the newest results and findings in his group, focusing on advanced materials for Li-S batteries. His expertise in the field was inspiring! We extend our gratitude and appreciation to Prof. Can Li, Prof. Guohua Chen, Prof. Qiang Zhang and Prof. Feng Yan for their great seminars and insight. Thank you!

  • Aug.2018


    Congratulation to (from left to the right): Hamed Fathiannasab, Mahbubehsadat Mousavi, and Sepehr Khazraei for successful passing the PhD comprehensive exam. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
    Their thesis titles respectively: "Advanced Modeling of Anode for Lithiumion Batteries", "Developement of Aqueous Zinc/Iodide Redox Flow Batteries", "Aqueous Rechargeable Zinc Lithium-ion Battery".
  • Aug.2018


    Congratulations to Archisman Ray for the successful defense of his M.Sc. thesis. We wish him all the best in his future.
  • Aug.2018
    Congratulations to Justin Raimbault for the successful defense of his M.Sc. thesis on the Cathode Coated with Alucone by Molecular Layer Deposition for Sodium Ion Batteries". We wish him all the best in his future.
  • Aug.2018
    Our recently published paper on Advanced Materials titled "30 Years of Lithium-Ion Batteries" has been highlighted in the Advanced Materials Journal June 2018 Battery Science literature review. Take a look!
  • June.2018


    Chase your dreams. Burst out at the seams. Never stop trying. Never stop learning. Live life to the fullest and give it nothing but your best. Congratulations on receiving your hard-earned doctoral degrees. Best wishes for the future.
    From left to right, Dong Un Lee, Gaopeng Jiang, Kun Feng, Jing Fu, Ali Ghorbani Kashkooli, and Yun-Seok Jun.
    Their thesis titles respectively:"Nanostructured Spinel Oxides as Bi-functional Electrocatalysts for Rechargeable Metal-Air Batteries", "Advanced non-precious metal catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells", "Advanced Silicon-based Electrodes for Rechargeable Lithium-ion Batteries", "Material Design and Engineering for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Zinc-Air Batteries", "Nanoscale X-ray Computed Tomography Based Modeling of Lithium-ion Battery Electrodes", and "Development of Graphene-Based Electrically Conductive Polymer Nano-Composites".
  • May.2018


    Our paper on Bifunctional electrocatalysts for Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries was featured as the Inside Front Cover article for Advanced Energy Materials.
  • May.2018
    Our recently published paper on Nature Communications titled "Chemisorption of polysulfides through redox reactions with organic molecules for lithium-sulfur batteries" has been selected as Editors' Highlights for this month. Each month, the NC editors select only a small number of articles recently published in Nature Communications that they believe are particularly interesting or important. Take a look!
  • Apr.2018


    Congratulations to Kun Feng for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on Advanced Silicon-based Electrodes for Rechargeable Lithium-ion Batteries. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

  • Our review paper titled "Batteries and Fuel Cells for Emerging Electric Vehicle Markets" has been published in Nature Energy. With the urgent need to decarbonize the global transportation sector, increasing attention has been paid to batteries and hydrogen fuel cells for electric vehicle energy storage and conversion. Lithium-ion batteries dominate the current generation of electric vehicles due to their relatively high energy density and long cycle life. However, a different set of energy storage characteristics are demanded by some transportation markets, particularly where longer driving ranges, lower vehicle costs or on-demand freight transportation is required. In this review, we discuss and evaluate the leading alternative technologies which could serve these emerging electric vehicle markets, including lead-acid, nickel- metal hydride, lithium-sulfur, lithium-air and zinc-air batteries, in addition to hydrogen fuel cell systems. More

  • Mar.2018
    Congratulations to Gregory Lui for winning the final 3MT competition hosted at the University of Waterloo and for advancing to the Provincials at York University on Thursday, April 19. His presentation was both engaging and interesting, and we wish him well in the months to come.




  • Congratulations to Jing Fu for the successful defense of her Ph.D. thesis on Material Design and Engineering for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Zinc-Air Batteries. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours.
  • Jan.2018

    Interview With Dr. Zhongwei Chen On The Future Of Clean Energy. Zhongwei Chen is a Professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Chen’s academic titles include Director of the Applied Nanomaterials & Clean Energy Laboratory, Director of Collaborative Graduate Program in Nanotechnology, Canada Research Chair in Advanced Materials... More
  • Dec.2017


    Congratulations to Ali Ghorbani Kashkooli for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on Nanoscale X-ray Computed Tomography Based Modeling of Lithium-ion Battery Electrodes. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.


  • Our paper on A Novel Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalyst for Metal-Air Batteries is among the most read articles for ACS Energy Letters in the past November.... More

  • Simpleware software highlighted our work on image based modeling of lithium-ion battery electrode as a pioneering work in the field ...More
  • Nov.2017

    IdeaMensch highlighting an interview with Dr.Chen about his ideas on productivity, innovation, and growth... More
  • Oct.2017

    Defect Engineering of Chalcogen-Tailored Oxygen Electrocatalysts for Rechargeable Quasi-Solid-State Zinc-Air Batteries: A high-temperature ammonolysis is proven effective for improving both the mediocre catalytic activity of metal oxides and the restricted 2D mass/charge transfer of graphene. The defect chemistries of both oxygen-vacancy-rich cobalt oxysulfides and edge-nitrogen-rich graphene nanomeshes of the hybrid catalyst lead to a remarkable improvement in electrocatalytic performance for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions. This is reported by Jing Fu, Fathy M. Hassan, Cheng Zhong,* Jun Lu, Han Liu, Aiping Yu, and Zhongwei Chen* in the article https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201702526. Video Abstract
  • Aug.2017 Congratulations to post-doc Dr. Hadis Zarrin for her new professor position at Ryerson University. Wish her great success in the new position!
  • Congratulations to post-doc Dr. Xiaolei Wang for his new professor position at Concordia University. Wish him great success in the new position!
  • Congratulations to Dr. Drew Higgins for his new professor position at McMaster University. Wish him great success in the new position!
  • Congratulations to post-doc Dr. Wook Ahn for his new professor position at Soon Chun Hyang University. Wish him great success in the new position!



  • Congratulations to Dong Un Lee for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on development of nano-structured spinel oxide based materials as bi-functionally active electrocatalysts for facilitating oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions. We wish him the best of luck for his upcoming position at Stanford University as Postdoctoral fellow!



  • Congratulations to Pouyan Zamani for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on Advanced Carbon Nanomaterials as Non-Precious Metal Catalysts for Fuel Cells. We wish him great success in his future career!


  • Congratulations to Gaopeng Jiang for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on Advanced Non-precious Metal Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Electrochemical Energy System. We wish him great success in his future career!
  • Jun.2017


    Congratulations to Salah Abureden on successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis. on Advanced Nanostructure Materials for Hybrid Supercapacitors. We wish him great success in his future career!
  • Mar.2017

    Dr. Chen has been one of the 150 most cited scholars in energy research ...More
  • Jan.2017

    Congratulations to Ja-Yeon Choi on successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis on Nanostructured non-precious metal catalyst and its behavior in the catalyst layer in PEM fuel cells. We wish him the best of luck for his upcoming position at Ballard Power Systems as Postdoctoral fellow!
  • Oct.2016
    Research2Reality highlighting an interview with Dr.Chen about everything from what he is reading to what advice he would give to young researchers... More
  • Sep.2016
    Congratulations to Drew Higgens for winning 2016 Canada Distinguished Dissertation Award in the category of Engineering/Medical Science/Natural Science for developing a fuel cell catalyst 7 times more effective than the current state of the art technology... More
  • Sep.2016 Dr. Chen has been elected as a member of the College of Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Chen was among the three professors from University of Waterloo to be... More
  • Aug.2016


    Congratulations to Zhiyu Mao on successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis. We wish him great success in his future career!
  • Aug.2016

    Our paper on Flexible Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries was featured as the cover article of Advanced Materials... More
  • Aug.2016

    Congratulations to Jared Lenos for successfully defending his MSc thesis. We wish him great success in his future career!
  • Jul.2016
    Congratulations to Md Ariful Hoque for obtaining Humboldt Research Fellowship as Postdoctoral Researchers. We wish him the best of luck for his upcoming position at Technical University Munich (TUM) in Germany.
  • Feb.2016

    Dr. Chen has been awarded the Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Announced in February 2016 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Dr. Chen was one of six Steacie Memorial Fellowship recipients. ... More
  • Dec.2015

    Prof. Chen recognition for Dr. Min Ho Seo great performance during two years of Post-doc


    Group members recognition for Prof. Chen for great achievements in 2015.


    Group new year lunch party
  • Nov.2015 Toronto Sun highlights our silicon-based lithium-ion battery in University of Waterloo shopping 'next generation' silicon battery ... More

  • Oct.2015 IEEE spectrum highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in Li-ion Batteries Keep Improving, But for What Application? ... More
  • A media release highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in Waterloo researchers’ technology to produce longer-lasting batteries ... More
  • A media release highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in Researchers create new technology that makes powerful, lighter batteries ... More
  • Control environments highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in Lighter, Long-term Batteries Made from Silicon ... More
  • Business standard highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in New tech produces lighter, long-lasting batteries from silicon ... More
  • Exchange magazine highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in University of Waterloo releases landmark report on innovation ... More
  • Industrial Mineral highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in IM Lithium News in Brief 21 – 27 October ... More
  • Sep.2015
    Our paper Synthesis and structural evolution of Pt nanotubular skeletons: revealing the source of instability for nanostructured electrocatalysts has been selected as a Hot Article for Journal of material chemistry A...More


  • Jul.2015

    Congratulations to Drew Higgins for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on the development of new oxygen reduction catalysts for fuel cell technologies. We wish him the best of luck for his upcoming position at Stanford University supported by a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. 
  • Feb.2015 Dr. Chen is awarded from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to partner with industry on strategic research on proton exchange membrane fuel cell. He and eleven University of Waterloo researches are receiving more than $5.3 million from NSERC ... Exerpt
  • Dec.2014

    Congratulations to Hadis Zarrin on her successful Ph. D. defense! Wish her all the best for future endeavours.


    Congratulations to Fathy Hassan on successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis. Wish him great success in his future career!
  • Sep.2014
    Congratulations to Hey Woong Park on his successful Ph. D. defense! Wish him all the best in his future job!
  • Aug.2014

    Dr. Gordon Chiu visited ANCEL laboratory on August 27/28th and had insightful discussion about the recent breakthroughs on Lithium-sulfur Battery with the team members.
  • Jul.2014
    Our paper on Sulfur-doped Graphene Supported Platinum ORR Catalyst was featured as the inner cover article for Advanced Functional Materials... More
  • Jun.2014
    Dr. Chen is awarded the Discovery Accelerator Supplement from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). He and nine other researchers from the University of Waterloo recently received increased funds to support their research deemed to be novel or potentially transformative, and likely to contribute to ground-breaking advances ... Exerpt
  • May.2014

    Dr. Chen's textbook on Non-Noble Metal Fuel Cell Catalysts has been published ... More


    Congrats to Team 2 featuring Rasim, Jared, He, Vugar, Salah and Xiaolei on their 1st place finish in the Inter-Lab Futsal Tournament ... More
  • Apr.2014
    Our paper on Extremely Durable 3D Bifunctional Air Electrodes was featured as the cover article for Advanced Energy Materials... More


    The Oxy-Zn team competes as finalists at the Rice Business Plan Competition with Dr. Chen's Zn-Air technology ... More
  • Mar.2014
    The ANCEL laboratory was invited to take part in the Engineering Explorations event ... More
    Congratulations to Xiaolei Wang and Ge Li on the arrival of their baby girl!
  • Jan.2014 Several graduate students accepted internship positions for the next six months. Congratulations to:
    - Victor Chabot at General Motors
    - Ja-Yeon Choi at Ballard Power Systems
    - Drew Higgins at Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Oct.2013


    A paper on a novel anode material for Lithium-ion battery has been accepted by Nano Letters... More
  • Sep.2013

    Dr. Chen's Zn-Air Battery work is featured at U of Waterloo main website... More
    Congratulations to Hadis Zarrin, Drew Higgins and Kun Feng who were awarded WIN Fellowships in Nanotechnology... More
  • Aug.2013 Congratulation to post-doc Dr. Siamak Farhad for his new professor position at University of Akron, US. Wish him great success in the new position!
  • Jun.2013 A media release highlighting our collaboration with Los Alamos National Lab in the US DOE Project... More
  • May.2013 Dr. Chen working in partnership with WatCo secures $160k in commercialization funding for a Zinc-air Battery technology ... More
  • May.2013 Dr. Chen delivered an invited talk for the Center for Catalytic Science & Technology Seminar at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE ... More
  • May.2012

    Dr. Chen has received Early Researcher Award from Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation... More

  • May.2012 Dr. Chen delivered an invited talk for the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Graduate Seminar at the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH ... More
  • Apr.2012

    A media release by Ars Technica highlighting our novel bifunctional catalyst for rechargeable metal-air battery... More
  • Mar.2012 Two papers on novel electrocatalysts for zinc-air and fuel cell applications published on Electrochim. Acta and Electrochem. and Solid-State Letters... More
  • Feb.2012

    A paper on novel bifunctional catalyst for rechargeable metal-air battery has been accepted by Nano Letters... More
  • Jan.2012 Two papers on novel electrocatalysts for fuel cell applications are published on Journal of Materials Chemistry and Journal of Electrochemical Society... More
  • Nov.2011 Drew Higgins was awarded third place in the Dr. Bernard S. Baker Student Award Competition... More
  • Sep.2011

    Our review paper on non-precious metal catalysts has been selected one of the top ten most-read Energy & Environmental Science articles... More
  • Jul.2011 A review paper on non-precious metal catalysts has been accepted by Energy & Environmental Science... More
  • Jul.2011 Congratulations to Fathy, Drew, and Clark on winning graduate fellowships from NSERC/OGS... More